Johnny, Alvin, and Global Warming

It is Saturday night and I am not preaching tomorrow. It always feels a little bit weird not to preparing a sermon--not necessarily bad just weird. I'm doing a blue Christmas service tomorrow--it is a service where we acknowledge that with all of the joy that this season brings it also comes with many dark aspects as well. For many it holds great sadness and grief. So we'll name that in worship tomorrow. It will include lots of time for meditation and silence. And that means no sermon from me.
So what have I done today in place of sermon preparation? Well I've done a lot of what I normally do on Saturday--nothing. I woke up and listened to the radio. I love, love, Saturday morning NPR. Weekend Edition with Scott Simon. Car Talk. Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! Seriously love it, even though the wait, wait was a montage of previous guests. They didn't tape this week because of the holiday. Then this afternoon I saw Sweeny Todd. It was really good. And I was a little hesitant about a singing Johnny Depp. But yeah, good. Definitely worth seeing. Although, be forewarned it is a bit gory. As you would expect if you know the story. But the blood is cartoonish.
When I was in Florida I saw Alvin and the Chipmunks with the nieces and nephews. All I will say is that I think the kids liked it.
I had a good time in Florida. i ate a lot of really bad food--that was really, really good! For those of you who live in cold climates, it was so not that in Florida. Sunny and warm. I wore shorts and t-shirts most days. Some of you may say that doesn't feel like Christmas, but I grew up in Florida so it feels for the most part like Christmas to me. Although, I do remember colder Christmases. It's an inconvenient truth.
Which reminds me of something. Somehow my cousins and I were joking about melting ice caps and droughts, etc. I know funny stuff right? Anyway, my aunts pipe in I think the Lord has it all under control. I tried to pipe in that we were appointed care takers for the earth but by that time they had already moved on to something else. But seriously, I just think that is so crazy to just think oh we don't have to worry about global warning because God has it all under control. Perhaps, I'm just thinking, oh maybe God wanted us to have it all under control. And I don't think we've done that great of a job. Oh well. That is my family.

Alright, well that is it for tonight. It is kind of cool and rainy here so I'm going to heat up some soup and settle in for the night.

Peace out!

Hope Your Christmas was Crap Free!!!

I am T-I-R-E-D! I woke up at 3:30 AM this morning in Florida. I had only been in Florida since Monday and I never really adjusted to the time completely. Plus I was staying at my parent's house. At some point I'm sure I'll go into my parent's house--but for now I'll just say that their house is so dirty that I don't like being there and I especially don't like sleeping there. So I didn't get much sleep before I got up at 3:30. Then I left Florida and landed in San Francisco at 1:30. Now it is 6:16 PM in California. I have been up for a long time. Oh, and I have the beginnings of a cold, what with the sleep deprivation, my parents dirty, drafty house, and the walking petrie dishes that are my nieces and nephews it was bound to happen. So I have been downing airborne all day. But I have a headache and I am tired.

So I'll write again soon and talk about Christmas! And then don't forget on January 1, my year in review. I'll post my Christmas Card picture with this post so you can enjoy it if you didn't get an actual card.

UPDATED: Well I couldn't post the picture. I'll try again when I'm more awake.

Why can't a computer read my mind?

Okay, so in yesterday's post I told you I mailed off all my Christmas cards. Well when I wrote that I was wrong. About 6:00 last night I was doing some other things at my dining room table, which serves as an additional desk, when I looked over and saw a stack of addressed envelopes that hadn't been stuffed or mailed. So I quickly did that and got them in the mail. Although, that means I they went out with today's mail instead of yesterdays. It also meant that I ran out of cards. I had two left and 6 more names on my list to get addresses for. So last night I had to go to Target to buy a box of generic cards. They are nice, but my cards had my picture on them and a witty comment. Oh well. One note about the Christmas cards: normally I like to write a letter and place it in the card, my take on a Christmas card but hopefully not so tedious. But this year it just didn't happen so i wrote a note saying I would write a year-end review on January 1 on the blog. This mean for those of you who don't get a Christmas card you won't miss out on my wrap up of the last year. Hooray for you! You won't want to miss it. I know that sounds awfully arrogant but really it'll be good. (Maybe, I'm over selling it, a bit!)

A complaint. So this afternoon I went to mail the 2 international cards at the post office. They have this automated postage machine. I went up to the machine to buy the postage because the line for the counter was long. But when I got to the end of the screens, after the letter was weighed, and I was told how much it would cost, 90 cents, I pushed the button that said purchase and it said I had to spend at least a dollar. It wanted me to buy an extra stamp but I didn't need an extra stamp. I wanted it to take into consideration that I was going to buy more postage. I cancelled and got in line and waited.

This week I have also seen two movies, one Monday afternoon and one this afternoon. On Monday I saw Atonement and today I saw Juno. I really liked them both. Juno was hilarious and touching,--Atonement heart breaking. They are both so good. If I could only see one, it would probably be Juno. The writing was just so witty. There were lines I so wanted to remember but there were just too many of them. Ellen Page who plays the title character was really, really good. In Atonement, there is one character who ages from a little girl to an old woman throughout the film. And they way they visually signal this to the audience is they kept her hair style exactly the same. Come on, 80 years of the same hair style? I think they even gave her the same barrette. Ridiculous. I think the audience might have been smart enough to figure out that she was the same person even without the hair.

Alright, I'm off to have dinner with my friend Karen.

Peace out!

Yay! They are done.

I just finished mailing my Christmas cards. Well, almost all of them. I still need to get a few addresses. I made a little video to document their very long trip to the mail box. The song is obvious but it is being sung by James Taylor. Enjoy. Now I'm off to finish everything else on my list.



Peace out

Irony?

No time to write tonight. It is 10:21 and I have been working on my Christmas Card mailing list since I got home from centering prayer. I just took a break to write this blog and to do something else that I'm about to ask you about.

I have on the Biggest Loser while I'm working. I haven't really watched this show but I just feel so good seeing all these people get healthy. So anyway here is my question: Is it ironic that while I took a break and a show about people losing weight was on I was eating chocolate ice cream out of the carton?

I think it is.

Alright until tomorrow.

Peace out!

Happy Birthday Jesus, I hope you like extravagant consumption.

I've attached a talky blog today. It is a story about a Christmas party I went to this weekend. You'll see I run out of time. So watch the video and then read below it for some tied up loose ends.



So Juuu-lee had two sisters, one of which was at the party. The two sisters were names Betty and Peggy, named after Juuu-lee's grandmother and aunt. So she said her name was french for Julie and that her mother wanted to name them all french names but had to name the other two after family. I don't buy it. I think she changed the pronunciation herself to sound all hoity-toity. It was kind of ridiculous.

Anyway, I just wasn't impressed. And the more Don drank the more impressed he was. He just fawned over the whole thing. I think I was actually more annoyed by him than the party.

But he left today, so I'm back to having the house to myself. Don is a good guy but I can only stand him in small doses.

Alright, well my Christmas cards came today so I have to get working on that.

Peace out.

I don't need a Tickle Me Elmo after Christmas!

Okay, I just got back from Target a little while ago. Why you may ask? (Probably you were not asking that but I'm going to pretend that you were.) I just got back from Target because I went to buy Christmas gifts for my nieces and nephews. I was going to order them on-line and have them shipped. But all of the toy things I was going to get them would not have arrived until after Christmas. I know I waited to late to order, blah, blah, blah. But anyway I also ordered books. I like ordering on Amazon, particularly for Christmas and birthdays, because I am an Amazon Prime member which means I get 2 day free shipping on my purchases. And I did that last night, I ordered at least the books. But here is why I am a big doofus. My friends Mike and Don are in town this weekend going to a party in Oakland. So I put the books in my on-line shopping cart before they arrived and then I got busy finishing dinner. (I made a butter nut squash soup. It was goo-ood.) So I had to check-out after they got here. Well I was sort of talking and trying to check out at the same time and what did I do? I had the books shipped to my house instead of my parents house. So that means that free shipping to their house means absolutely nothing now. My plan is to just put it all in a big box and check it on the plane. Because I will be out of time to ship it, ship it after the books actually arrive here. Which is fine, but it just means I'll have to schlep it around the airport before I check in. But you know I go write to the counter to check-in so it really not an inconvenience. It would have just been nice. And I wanted to point out what a fool I was.

But I did get the toy items for my niece and nephews today at Target. This means that I have only a few more items to buy and I'll be finished. Yay! See I finished in time and did all my necessary advent things. I'm a rock star!

Tonight I'm going out for my friend Justin's birthday. We are having dinner at this really nice restaurant called the Last Supper Club. But we aren't having dinner until 8:30. That is late for me to have dinner. So I had a bag of french fries on my way home from Target and now I'm eating an apple. I have to have a snack. Then after dinner we are headed out for a pub crawl and my friends Don and Mike are going to meet up with us later. It will be fun. Justin is a hoot. Remember he is the proprietor of Studio Vox. If you need that last minute gift idea check him out.

Oh, and one more thing, you'll notice I added another blog, Anne Nahm. You have got to go read her latest series of entries. Read for the last week and a half or so, beginning with the baby j series. Oh my lord is it funny. I don't even know this woman but she is my new blogging hero.

Alright, until tomorrow when I'll probably be writing in some hung-over haze.

Peace out!